Take Me on the Floor
by MissMandee31
Summary: Daria’s first year at Raft is finally over. With a somewhat new outlook on life, she heads back to Lawndale. If only she knew how much she had changed. Permanant Hiatus. I apologize, but I've lost any and all muse for this story. :
1. Chapter 1

**Take Me on the Floor.**

**Chapter 1.**

**Summary: Daria's first year at Raft is finally over. With a somewhat new outlook on life, she heads back to Lawndale. If only she knew how much she had changed. Will Lawndale be ready for it?**

**A/N: Slightly AU with Daria's life outlook, and the things that she has done. Bare with me, I'm not sure how I want this story to go. But there will be some interesting parts if this story pans out :D Let me know what you think.**

A crash at 8:30 in the morning woke her up. He eyes darted to the scene of said crash. Blurred vision, she picked up her frames and place them over her eyes, noticing her klutz of a room mate scrambling to get packed. The crash was a very dark red picture frame, shattering to pieces around an "all too cute" picture of her and her boyfriend of the week.

"Sorry Daria", her roommate said in an apologetic tone as she took small pieces of glass off the ground and placed them in a growing pile in her other hand.

"It's okay Jill." The auburn headed girl said as she swung her legs over the side of her bed, and glancing at the clock once more.

"You headed home today too?" she asked, forgetting their multiple conversations on their summer plans. One too many nights they had crawled back into bed completely wasted from the night before. Daria's memory never faltered, but Jill's on the other hand was gone after the first shot.

"Yeah, I have someone to talk to." Daria said as she got her usual chills and slightly less pink cheeks. She had grown up in this year. She was 19, and well on her way to a Master's in Journalism, making working anywhere in the Boston area a possibility. She'd "lived it up" as Jill liked to call it, 4 weeks into the first semester when her first roommate, Angela, dropped out and was replaced by livewire Jill. Since then, Jill had made her die down on her cynical views, and she had become less sarcastic, but still quipped in often to show she hadn't changed that much.

"Awesome, is he cute?" Jill winked, and smiled as she gathered the last remaining small bits of the broken glass from the floor, and threw them away.

Daria gave a small sarcastic smile back to Jill, and Jill just laughed.

"So I'll see you in 6 weeks hun." Jill said as she waved goodbye and closed the door behind her. Daria was alone, and called her parents.

"Hellooo?" a voice of a woman, overstressed and high strung. Obviously she had been expecting someone, and it wasn't Daria.

"Hey mom." Daria's monotonous voice spoke into her mother's ears.

"Oh! Daria sweetie. How's college? You working hard?"

"Unbelievably hard. So hard they've decided to send me home for 6 weeks." Daria spoke sardonically into the phone.

"That's great sweetie. When is that?" Helen said, oblivious as ever.

"About 3 hours. Still have some things to pack."

"Oh No!" Helen spoke as she did when bad news was on the rise.

"Did you rent my room out?"

"No honey, of course not. Your father and I are going to celebrate our anniversary in Mexico!" She said excitedly, and then realized that she offended her daughter. "Please come home though, we will only be gone a couple of weeks. It will be just you and Quinn around here."

"Well can't give up that offer…" Daria said rudely into the phone thinking about another great thing about college, no Quinn.

"She won't be here much, you know her Daria, out with boys and her friends. It'll be just like you're home alone."

"Now that actually is an offer I can't refuse. I'll see you in a couple of weeks then."

"Okay honey, have a safe trip home!" the over eager Helen then hung up and undoubtedly ran upstairs to pack and load her Sedan.

Daria grabbed her duffle bag that had been packed for about a week already. She had fairly easy assignments, and had nothing left to do with her time when her and Jill weren't out at the campus pub, so she packed. She headed out the door and down the hall of the McKinley dorm out to her tan Jeep Cherokee, and threw her duffle bags into the back. She hopped in the driver's seat and prepared herself for the 2 hour drive back to Lawndale.

With multiple stops to gas stations for cigarettes, waters, and road food, the two hours dragged by along with traffic jams, car accidents, and an ungodly heat wave of nearly 80. Eventually she spotted her house, and pulled in the empty driveway. She grabbed her stuff out of the backseat, and approached the front door. Soon realizing, she didn't have a house key anymore she reached underneath the welcome mat, and let herself in. As soon as she got inside, she realized she was not alone.

"Oh my god, Sandy, some creep's in the house, I'll call you back… No you can't stay on hold… No you can't ask me to get his number… " she quickly hung up and ran down the stairs. "Oh, it's just you. I thought you were like 3 hours away from here."

"I was… three hours ago." Daria spoke as she untied her boots and placed them near the door.

"Ugh! Why didn't mom tell me you were coming home?"

"Probably the same reason she told me you weren't going to be here half the time."

Quinn then proceeded to make sighing and groaning noises all the way back up the stairs, as she was quickly back on the phone with her fashion posse. Daria rolled her eyes and pulled out her cell phone, _thank god for that cabin fund_ she thought. She dialed familiar numbers to the Lane household, and after almost 5 rings a scruffy male voice picked up.

"Uh hello?" the voice sounded sleepily. _Guess things hadn't changed all too much_, Daria thought at the sound of Trent's grogginess.

"Hey Trent."

"Daria?" His voice picked up slightly, he couldn't remember the last time that he'd heard from her.

"Yes, I'm in town and last week when Jane called she'd be around here the same time. Is she home?"

"Don't think so, heard from her last night, she said she would probably be a couple of days late."

Daria sighed, there was so much she wanted to talk to Jane about. So much that had changed about herself, and she wanted Jane to be there to witness everything.

"Okay, well I guess just have her call me when she gets in."

"Okay, I will. Are you at home now?"

"Yeah. My mom and dad are out for the next couple of weeks, so it's just me and good ole' Quinn." Trent's throat laugh was heard vaguely over the phone.

"Wanna be saved from it?" He said, as he got himself up from his sleeping position. Hoping to get out and catch up with his friend.

"Depends, what are you offering? Oh, who am I kidding. Sure." Daria spoke into the phone.

"Okay, need a ride?"

"Trent, I'm 19, I have a car." Daria said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, right. I'll meet you at Pizza King."

"Sounds good, see in you ten." Daria said as she hung up the phone. She debated telling Quinn that she was leaving, but it's not like she would care. She grabbed her keys off the coffee table and headed out to her car. She caught a glimpse of herself in her rear view mirror. Her face was pale, and her eyes were friendly. She wondered how long ago she had lost her embarrassment, and what had caused her reddish cheeks that morning. Either way it wasn't important, she backed out of her driveway and headed down to Pizza King to meet with Trent.


	2. Chapter 2

**Take me on the Floor.  
****Chapter 2.  
****A/N: Sorry about that, had some stuff going on in my life, but I promise you I will finish this fanfiction if it kills me. :]**

It wasn't soon after Daria had arrived, that Trent walked into the pizza parlor. Daria's eyes met his sleek exterior, and mysterious aura. His dark eyes were still very welcoming, as she felt her pulse quicken a bit. It seemed that plenty had gone on since she had left. She glanced over his arms, fully blackened with dozens of tribal designs and words. His lips seemed freshly pierced with a silver ring on each side, and although his pants were still worn and torn up, his shirt was a rather interesting plaid sweater, sleeves rolled and buttons undone revealing a black tank underneath. His hair just slightly longer than what it had been a year ago, she couldn't keep her eyes from his.

"Hey" she spoke as he approached the table. He too noticed a difference in his friend. Nothing huge, Daria still wore her old black combat boots beneath a pleated black skirt. She had decided to exchange her army green jacket for a more fitting grey sweater and a basic v-neck beneath it.

"Hey." He spoke as he was still taking in this beautiful woman in front of him.

"So I'd like to thank you, for saving me from this inevitable failure of a summer vacation."

"No problem Daria, it's good seeing you again." He said as he picked up his paper cup and began to chew on the straw.

"Same here Trent. You still playing music with Mystic?" she asked, staring into his deep brown eyes, and feeling him stare into her own.

"Occasionally. After Janey left, it was hard being in a home alone all the time. I decided I didn't have any college education, but that didn't mean I couldn't work at the steel mill."

"Oh wow. Trent Lane? A job?" she joked as she sipped on her orange soda.

"I figured the money was good, I could start saving up for something. Not sure what yet, but maybe a new car, new guitar, something."

"Or maybe for your new decoration?" She said pointing at his arms with a sly smile.

"Self-expression. Just like my music, I have to express myself, I suppose it's a literal term for wearing your heart on your sleeve."

"Never though of it that way, never thought I'd hear you say anything like that either." Daria said bluntly of her friend, who had never been much of the intelligent kind.

"Me either, but I guess I'm trying to better myself, piece by piece. Might even go to college some day, not anytime in the near future, but maybe someday."

"That sounds pretty admirable Trent, glad you're finally figuring things out."

"Me too, how've you been since you entered college life?" Trent said, knowing that the answer would probably be something about her grades, and her lack of a social life. After she spoke, he sat in shock.

"I'm on my way to a degree, but I'm having a bit of trouble keeping up you know? I mean I have friends, a lot of friends, it's something so unrealistic to me that I want to grab it and never let go. Therefore when my roommate and her friends want to go out I go with them, there's rarely a weekend where I'm sober." Daria spoke, shocked to even hear it come out of her own mouth. Ever since she was young she always knew that even in college she would be at the top of her class, but things change. She was struggling to maintain a C average, and although it was still passing, she knew it wasn't her best effort.

"Well I definitely never thought I'd hear you say that either." Trent gave a small laugh afterwards thinking of the situation. Never once in his life had he considered Daria a "party girl". He knew them, he dated them, he grew to hate them. Girls like Monique weren't the type of girl to plan a future on. His face darkened, as he realized that Daria may have become a clone of her, but he wondered if there was any old Daria left in her.

"I guess we've both changed since last year huh?" Daria spoke, almost unsure of herself. She didn't want him to get the wrong idea of her, she didn't want him to think low of her ever. She remembered last year, how low she though of him, yet she held him so high on a pedestal that when things went wrong, he never knew how much it affected her.

"Guess we did Daria." He said as his gaze moved from the middle of the table up to her feminine facial features, they had become more apparent since last year. Or maybe he wasn't paying attention last year. It was interesting to think that he was trying to improve his life, and she was beginning to slip on hers. All year he thought he wanted to make his sister proud to talk about her brother, instead of calling him a music creep all the time. In all reality, he wanted to impress Daria too. He wanted to prove to the two closest people her knew that he could improve himself, and he did.

Daria was thinking the same thing as she looked over at his hands. Old burn marks from the steel, calluses from guitar playing. The hands spoke more than a novel to Daria. His overworked healed hands said that college isn't for everyone, and that in all reality you don't need it. It made Daria think, she had left here with a crush on a complete low-life, left for a year, came back and the low-life was gone. Sitting in front of her was a man, not sure about his future, but sure that he can amount to something.

The tension was thick at that point, leaving both parties nibbling on their pizza silently, barely able to make eye-contact. Trent was thinking about how Daria used to be, and Daria was thinking about how Trent used to be. She was also left thinking if Jane would come back different too. 365 days, 52 weeks, 1 year. However she worded it in her head it didn't seem like that long of a time to change a person.

Daria's cell ringing woke them both out of a though provoking gaze. Daria jumped a slight bit, as Trent just looked towards her phone.

"Hello?" Daria answered.

"Hola Amiga."

"Jane? Hey! Where are you?" Daria said happier.

"On the road actually, should be back in Lawndale in about maybe 2 more hours?" she said unsure.

"Oh great, I'm here already hanging with your brother actually." She said as she looked over at the man across the table, who gave her a small grin.

"Well tell him to prepare for a party chica. I swear I must have 5 or 6 bottles of vodka. It seems to get these crazy art kids inspired or something." She joked.

"Oh wow, well I'll let him know." Daria said.

"Alright, call you when I'm home." She hung up the phone. Daria flipped her phone closed and glanced over at Trent.

"Your sister's planning a party apparently." She spoke with an uneven tone of happiness and disappointment.

"Aw crap. Janey and liquor is never a good mix." Trent joked. Trying to repress the past conversation from his mind, and focus on the now. Daria smiled, glancing down at the phone. "You okay?" Trent asked. The old Daria wasn't much for words, but it seemed that the new one, had something to say; but wouldn't.

"I'm fine, it's just strange being back is all. The way things have changed, at least from what I've heard." She said uneasily to him.

"Sometimes change is necessary." He spoke to her, as the waitress walked over and handed them the bill.

"Even if the change isn't what you were hoping for?" Daria asked shyly, referring to herself, and what she had undergone.

"Change is inevitable Daria, you just have to go with it." He said as they both reached towards the bill. Her soft fingertip touched his callused one. "I got it." He spoke as she retracted her hand. The nanosecond touch was pure electricity for her, and she wasn't sure how to react to it.

He left to pay the bill as his mind was racing. He handed the cashier a twenty and glanced back at his table. He looked down to his finger, he still felt her touch. Soft and subtle yet it made him weak. He then realized that when he was 20, and she was 16, she cared about him even though he was a loser. Daria knew that he had potential, and that he just wasn't using it. She talked him through hard times even when his car broke down about an hour outside the alternapalooza. It hit him that no matter if Daria was a drunk, a failure, a druggie, a drop out, a gambler, or whatever else she might become. He'd always care about her, just like she did with him.

"Sir, your change?" the woman behind the counter knocked him out of his train of thought. He grabbed the bills and change that she handed him and just glanced over at Daria. He smiled. She noticed him, and smiled back. Just like change was inevitable, they both knew that this was inevitable. Somewhere between her belly-button piercing, and the failed English assignment. Trent had fallen for his sister's best friend, and nothing was going to change that.

**A/N: This fiction is rated for a reason. There will be some interesting "actions" going on in further chapters, therefore it's rated for a reason. I have the next chapter written already, so there shouldn't be such a long wait from now till the post date. Reviews 3**


	3. Chapter 3

**Take me on the Floor**

**Chapter 3.**

**A/N: Wow, I'm the worst updater ever! My apologies guys, don't give up on me just yet okay? :D Aha, but this time I DID lose everything on my computer erased due to a crap ton of viruses. And this chapter is dedicated to my grandmother who passed away on the 9th, she never gave up on anything in her life, so it made me not want to give up on being a writer. Hope you enjoy.**

Daria showed up somewhat early that evening. Obviously she was the first to arrive, Jane's black Trans Am sat lonely in their driveway. She approached the house and raised her hand to knock, she somewhat caught herself thinking _well who the hell else is she expecting? _and turned the copper knob instead, and let herself in. The living room was vacant, the Lane's normally very empty wooden table was filled with six bottles of Smirnoff Triple Distilled. Daria felt her pulse quicken, and flashbacks of her first keg stand, her first shot of vodka, and her first table dance. Niether of the three were all too pleasent or fond memories. She shook her head and released her thoughts as she heard movement.

"Burgler?", spoke a familiar female voice from upstairs.

"Yes Jane.", Daria spoke casually, as she picked up one of the slightly chilled bottles from the table.

"Did ya see the loot?", Jane said as she came downstairs, and noticed the bottle in one of her hands. "Someone's anxious." Jane said with a smirk as Daria shouldered her as she walked past and opened the refrigerator, revealing a variety of wine coolers and at least two, twenty four backs of Bud.

"Wow, you sure do know how to throw a party.", Daria said somewhat sarcastically.

"And miss getting you drunk Daria? There's no way I'd do that.", Jane remarked, "Gotta get drunk sometime in your life Daria, may as well be with your best pal." She said as she snagged a can of beer out of the refrigerator and tapped it closed with her hip, and headed to a couch in the living room.

Trent hadn't told her? Daria pondered as she still held the bottle of vodka in her hands, carefully reading the crevices and labels over and over again. She felt horrible. She had no idea that Jane was excited to get her friend drunk for the first time. But could she really think that in the year that Daria had been away that she'd been a saint? Jane only knew the high school Daria, not the flunking drunk college Daria. Still, had Trent hid it from her because he knew it'd kill his sister? So many questions were flooding her head and she couldn't think straight for even a minute. Jane interrupted her racing thoughts.

"Alright Daria, as the kids say it these days, let's get our drink on!", she said as she grabbed the liquor bottle from Daria's hand and brought it out to the living room. Daria smirked and followed. As she learned in college, never let a drink go un-drank.

Not even an hour later, Jane's house was filled to capacity. Not sure how anyone had found out about the "homecoming" party they were throwing, Jane and Daria didn't seem to mind. The house was crawling with new freshman and even sophomores from Lawndale Univeristy, and even some seniors from their old high school. Daria was dancing unsteadily to an upbeat techno song that seemed to be blaring at full blast on Jane's stereo. Jane was talking to a boy in the corner of the living room when the phone rang. Jane seemed to have no ambition to move from the cozy area in front of her boy-toy, so Daria stumbled over.

"Uh, hullo?", A drunken Daria said loudly into the phone.

"Daria?", a male voice spoke over the phone, Daria's heart sank.

"Oh, Trent, thought you were at the party?", She said rather stupidly, realizing obviously she was wrong.

"Ah, no I'm not. I actually called to talk to Janey, I'm on my way back but I hit a traffic jam, shouldn't be more than an hour. Pass the word along?", he said slowly, hoping that Daria could hear him over the music and chatter int he background.

"Will do Trent, and I'll see you when you get home.", she said rather seductively and giggled as she hung the receiver up back on it's cradle. She then danced her way over into Jane's space and threw her arm over her shoulder. Jane grabbed her hand and helped her hold herself up.

"And this is the one I was telling you about, my little drunk friend Daria. First summer home from college like me.", she spoke to the dark-haired mysterious man in front of her.

"Ah, very nice to meet you Daria.", the man spoke deeply as he held out his hand in order to shake hers, and she just gave him a thumbs up, and began laughing hysterically.

"Alright, that's my cue to go, I'll talk with you later Matt.", Jane slurred out, and proceeded to laugh along with her friend.

"Matt's pretty cute huh?", Daria tried to speak.

"I think his name's Dave...", she said as she stared ahead of her, and realized what she had done. They exchanged glances and began laughing hysterically once again.

"Your brother called by the way.", Daria told her.

"Yeah, I figured he'd call around this time he had to work a full 12 hours today, college tuition is kicking his ass." Jane said as she cracked open another beer and took about 5 gulps from it.

"Huh? When he and I talked he wasn't even in college." Daria managed to spit out just those words, and tried to regain her composure.

"He's been in college for a few months, community college at least. Majoring in engineering or some shit like that.", she said as she finished the beer off and got another one. Daria suddenly felt her stomach tie into a knot. She wondered why he'd lied to her, straight to her face. Had it come down to the point where he'd actually felt bad for her and wanted to make himself seem as bad as she was? When did the girl who always gave the advice to the boy that she'd felt bad for, switch roles? She hurried away from Jane as quickly as she could, she heard Jane call her but Matt-Dave caught her by the waist and brought her closer to him. Daria grabbed one of the half full liquor bottles on the table and made a dash towards the stairway, and found Jane's room occupied, very occupied. She peeked her head into Trent's room and noticed it was still empty. She sat herself on the edge of Trent's unmade bed, and unscrewed the top of the vodka and took many gulps before replacing the cap. She glanced down at a notebook, being drunk and completely unaware of his privacy, she opened it.

Notes upon notes. School notes, no music notes, no lyrics. School notes. A tear hit the page, unaware of her crying, she continued to flip the pages and become more and more of a wreck. Eventually she threw the notebook across the room and finished the bottle of vodka. Her head was pounding, the room was spinning, and her mouth was extremely dry. Her eyes flipped open and closed rapidly untill her head hit the matress behind her, and she was out. She awoke not too much later to find a man beside her, crumpled into a ball in the bed, wearing nothing. She glanced down to see that she too was wearing nothing, the man rolled over and kissed her.

"You were good baby.", a deep voice spoke. She recognized it instantly. She couldn't get herself to speak, no words would come out of her mouth, and the man just pressed himself against her again, and kissed her lips deeply.

"Stop.", she muttered weakly. Moving her arms up to his chest to push him away, he held her arms back. She tried to scream out of frustration but it just led to uncontrollable sobs, and the music was still blaring from downstairs. He moved his hands down her sides, and back up again and placed a forceful sloppy kiss onto her mouth once again before he forced his way back into her.

The pain was terrible, she wanted to cry just from the pain but she was still crying from the frustration, she threw her hand up to his face and felt it connect. His brown eyes glowed with rage.

"So that's how you out of town girls like it huh?", he said more rageful than sarcastic. His palm met her face, as he pushed himself inside of her deeper, and deeper. Her face was on fire, it felt like it was melting off. He kept slapping her and muffling her screams, eventually he'd had enough fun. He held her down by her throat, his strong hands pressed against her windpipe and brought himself closer to her once again.

"You will never tell anyone of this okay? Everyone will just think you're an easy slut. Although, it kind of looks that way to me anyway.", He laughed as he let go of her throat and quickly threw his clothes on and opened the door. The light from the outside of the room shined on his face, and even through her tear soaked eyes and drunken vision, she realized it was Matt-Dave. He closed the door quickly, and Daria realized she had to compose herself, but she was tired. She hurt, and she hurt bad. She walked over to the light switch and turned the lights back on. Her clothes were in a pile on the floor beside the bed, she threw herself together and laid back down in the bed. The pillows didn't smell like Matt-Dave, they smelled like Trent. She buried her face in a tan colored pillow and proceeded to break down into tears again. The door creaked open, she stopped crying.

"Haven't you had enough you sick fuck? Get the hell out of here!", she screamed through the pillows as she retracted herself into a ball, and glanced over at an awe-strucken Trent. He glanced over at a used condom sitting at the foot of his bed. He rushed over to her and put his hands up to her face.

"What happened?", He asked sincerely. Rubbing the side of Daria's left cheek, wiping tears from her face.

"I just got what I deserved. I'm flunking out of college, I'm a hopless drunk, and now a rape victim. It seems fitting doesn't it?", she said she she flew back into her fit of sobs and tears. Trent brought her head to his chest and rubbed the back of her hair, and gently kissed the top of her head.

"Daria..." He spoke as he brought her head back up to meet his eyes. "Who was he? Because he's dead.", he spoke again with the same sincerity he had before. Daria explained to him that he originally was Jane's guy for the night, and how she'd told her about his college, and how she found his notebooks, and drank herself stupid.

"Daria, I never meant it to affect you the way that it did. I just thought maybe it would help in some weird fantasy world. I'm sorry.", he said as he brought Daria's head back onto his chest as they laid back on his bed.

"It's the liquor talking, I know. I'm sorry I freaked like some obsessive girlfriend.", Daria said apologetically, slowly coming down from her intoxicated stupor.

"When you feel better, we'll talk more. And this Matt Dave guy has seen one of the last nights of his life. I promise you that.", He said, as he brushed hair away from Daria's face and rubbed her shoulder. She flinched. He sat up slightly. "Daria, I don't want in your pants. I'm genuine. Unlike him, I don't need sex to feel like I'm in love, or to have a good time."

Daria smiled somewhat "So what's your idea of a good time?", she asked, rather shocked she'd even opened her mouth.

"A good time to me is being with people, or maybe just one person, that you care about and have fun with.", Trent said sleepily, as he felt Daria's breathes getting heavier and more drawn out. He glanced down and saw that she had fallen asleep on him. He smiled, and immediately frowned. He wanted to kill Matt-Dave. What kind of guy could have done this to her if not a complete asshole. He was determined to find out and make him feel what it was like to be physically hurt. But not tonight, Daria needed him tonight, even if only for his chest being her pillow, she needed him. This was one time Trent wasn't going to let her down.

**A/N: Apologies for taking so long! Hopefully people haven't given up on me! But, I swear to you readers I'm going to finish it even if it kills me. Hopefully it's still a good read!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Take me on the Floor.**

**Chapter 4.**

**A/N: Damn guys. You wanted Chapter 3 and I got like one review, did it suckk? Well here's chapter 4. Like I said I'm going to finish this one if it kills me, and I have a pretty interesting plotline for a new fanfiction. Reviewsss?? Pleasee? I'd love you foreverrr.**

Sunlight was such a brutal alarm clock. How long had she been asleep for? He vision was still impaired from the night before and her stomach was making waves camparable to the ocean. She had no idea where her glasses were, or how they had ended up off. She turned to her side and saw Trent, outstretched and mouth wide open making a low snoring sound. She had no option other than to smile silently to herself. It than hit her what happened last night, the memories came flooding back into her mind. Her silent smile soon turned into an empty frown. She gathered her courage and got out of his bed and headed down the hall. She knocked and heard nothing, so she let herself in.

"Jane?", Daria asked cautiously.

"Yo.", she said as she took her pair of earphones from her ears. She was kneeling on the ground, painting on a canvas that had no easel, and was just laid on top of a piece of tarp.

"Uhm, what are you painting?", Daria asked nonchalantly.

"Not sure yet amiga. Trying to capture last night's party in one picture.", she said as she smiled.

"Oh sound cool.", she said as she sat back on Jane's bed. Jane dropped her paintbrush and sat next to her friend and looked at her face. Daria than realized she might be bruised, or swollen from the beating she had recieved last night. She was right.

"Daria? Why is your face so swollen? Goddamn you have a black eye. What the fuck happened to you?", she said more curious than pissed. Jane couldn't get mad at her if her Matt Dave raped her right? She wouldn't get jealous right? She sighed and began her story.

"Well you remember Matt, err.. Dave? Whatever his name was.", Daria asked.

"Yeah.", she said rather dreamily, which made Daria's insides twist and turn around each other.

"He came upstairs to Trent's room last night.", she said, still trying to play it cool based on her friends reactions.

"Yeah, he wanted to see if he had a guitar. He was going to sing to me", a smile crept back on Jane's face,"but the poor guy took so long upstairs that I ended up passing out on a couch downstairs, and I don't think he wanted to wake me." Jane finished.

"Well, I was in Trent's room when he was 'looking for a guitar'", Daria began, but wasn't sure how to finish it," Jane I was drinking, I didn't know what was going on." She saw Jane's face change from happiness to rage. She knew she was in for it.

"So you just slept with the guy that you obviously knew I had feelings for? What the hell is wrong with you Daria? First you kiss Tom back in high school, than you fuck me over again like this? Does it come easy to you or something?", Jane's fiery made the pain of Daria's cheek burn like it had before. She looked back up at her through tears.

"I... I just... I told him no.", Daria said though her vision was again impaired by the tears.

"Okay, sure you did Daria.", she said ignoring her friend and heading back to the paintbrush.

"You think I asked for him to beat me around a bit before we fucked? You think I'm some kind of fucking masochist?" Daria said, letting her anger show now, and still teary eyed. "Jane I need to know that asses last name because...", she realized she couldn't bring herself to even say it, to even admit it, to anything, " Jane he raped me. And I have the bruises between both of my thighs to prove it, and my swollen face." She said, fury seeming to drip from her tongue. She wanted Jane to wallow in the guilt that she should feel for even assuming that she was interested in that a guy that was obviously Janes. Daria turned to walk away.

"Orders." Jane said softly, before Daria had completely left the room. Daria glanced back in at a now teary-eyed Jane as she repeated herself. "His name is David Orders." Daria slinked herself back into her bedroom and sat beside Jane on the floor, and looked at her as she painted black and blue lines up and down the page.

"This suffice for telling people what the party was like?", Jane asked as she tried to crack a smile.

"Reminds me of early VanGogh, and it's quite impressive. But I'm no art critic." Daria jested. The two girls sat in silence for what felt like an eternity, until the usual sounds of a narcoleptic musician rising from bed were heard.

"Feel like pizza?", Jane asked warily.

"As long as the pizza doesn't fight back.", she tried joking.

"Well what would be the fun in that?", Jane smiled and patted her friend on the back, a ghost of a smile crept upon Daria's face. It was then that she realized she could live with what had happened to her, not easily; but it was doable. Jane made her way to Trent's room, he was trying to find a new shirt ot wear that day. Daria felt the heat on her cheek again, but this time, it wasn't because of her late night beating.

"Yo, wanna get a pie with us?", she asked her still sleepy brother.

"Uh, sure", he began,"You doing okay Daria?", he finished with such sincerity, all she could manage to do was nod.

The three walked to the pizza place without uttering a word. Daria realized that even though it was summer, she wrapped her jacket around her tightly, feeling as if the heat were a freak cool front in Lawndale. The two Lanes looked at each other, obviously thinking what each other was. They were worried about Daria; so worried about their friend that didn't do anything to deserve what had happened to her. They entered the pizza parlor and Jane headed to the counter to order the food. Trent and Daria made their way to a nearby table. Trent watched Daria lovingly, and wanted to say something, but couldn't figure out what.

"You snore.", Daria said jokingly, as Trent shook his head and laughed a bit. Surprisingly, not followed by his signature cough.

"Deviated septum, broke my nose when I was 6, that couldn't have helped it either.", He spoke.

"Wow, would have never guessed it."

"Yeah, I thought I was superman. I tied a towel around my throat and dove off the couch into the coffee table.", Daria laughed, Trent looked up at her and smiled.

"You never cease to amaze me Trent.", Daria spoke, without even realizing what she had said. Her smile faded from her face, and she tried to avert his gaze. Trent cleared his throat.

"Why do you do things like that Daria?", he asked curiously," you could say the nicest things to me, and then you won't even look at me."

"Trent, that's not the reason...", she said as she looked towards the glass doors of the pizza place, and noticed a too familiar face walking in by himself. Daria's stomach was tied into knots, this time she knew she was going to throw up. She ran to the bathroom as quickly as she could. Trent looked over at the dark-eyed guy standing at the register behind Jane, when he tapped her on the shoulder and she promptly slapped him across the face, he knew this was the guy.

"Hey.", Trent somewhat shouted to the guy who now wouldn't leave his sister alone.

"This your girl or something? Cos she was all over my last night pal.", he grinned an ear to ear grin.

"That's my little sister, and you touch her you're dead." he stated," Actually you're already dead.", he spoke as he clinched his fists to his side. Daria emerged from the bathroom to see Trent was in David's face.

"She said I raped her?", David spoke with fake shock in his voice, "She's a little slut when she's drunk, and apparently a compulsive liar as----" He was cut off abruptly by Trent's fist meeting his jaw in just the right place to hear a loud crack when he fell. Trent became overcome with emotion, and mounted David's stomach and began punching him multiple times in the face.

"Trent!", Jane and Daria screamed at the same time. Jane ran over to pull her testosterone filled brother off the defensless rapist. David didn't move he just layed on the ground covered in his own blood, both eyes swollen shut.

The police arrived not even 5 minutes later. Trent had pulled David's body up off the ground and demanded that he use his phone to not only call the police, but to turn himself in for what he did to Daria. Surprisingly he obliged. The police cuffed him and took him away in the backseat of a squad car. Daria was shaking quite furiously, her knees felt like they were made of limp noodles; she was telling the police what exactly had happened that night. After they had got her story, and it matched with David's she went back to her friends. She looked at Trent and threw her arms around him, out of pure happiness. Trent welcomed her onto his body, warmly putting his arms around Daria's back and kissing the top of her head.

"Daria," Jane spoke from behind her. Daria let go of Trent, and turned towards her., "You know, today was a victory, but there's still the trial. I don't want to get you down but rape cases are always hard to prove." Daria's heart sank.

"He admitted to it, it couldn't be easier I thought.", Daria fought back, almost angrily, Trent put his arm over her shoulder and pulled her close to him.

"David's part of a rich and well-known family. Daria, he's got a defense lawyer, and it's one that hasn't lost a case in his career." Jane spoke. She didn't want to bring her down but she needed to know that this wouldn't be easy, in fact; this could be even worse than high school.

**A/N: Maybe this time I'll get more than one review? I hope so, cos that kinda suckkkked! Aha, but I hope you all enjoy this so far. Even if you don't review and let me know what you're thinking about it.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Take me on the Floor**

**Chapter 5**

**A/N: I see my oh-so mature begging at the end of the last chapter actually pulled some reviews in. Heh, thanks everyone. This chapter I've been in the writing process for over 2 weeks, and I do apologize for my small mistakes, I no longer have Microsoft Word, so please forgive me. I'm hoping to finish this story up by the end of the year, which isn't saying much, but obviously I haven't written very often, and I plan to get back into the groove of sitting my butt at the computer until I finish chapters. Also this chapter is obviously shorter than the others, another apology on my behalf. :] Hope you enjoy this one.**

It had been just three days since the brawl at Pizza King, and Daria had spent most of her time at Jane's. The pressure of being home alone in a house was no longer a relief, it was purely terrifying for her. She headed home once a day with Jane by her side, or Trent and retreived the mail but that was all. Toady the mail was quite late. The only reason she knew that is because Jane always got hers after Daria did, and she had yet to see the mail come there yet. She stretched herself out on the Lane couch. She wasn't sure where the two siblings were; or if they were even home. She laid back and allowed her eyes to shut for a while.

"Daria... you're so amazing...", a voice said to her.

"What? What is this?", Daria said as she met David's face. She was once again undressed with him. "No, you're in jail, this is a dream." She said to herself as she looked frantically for her clothes.

"You're a dreamgirl Daria, don't let anyone tell you differently.", he said as he grabbed her and threw her back onto the couch with intensity.

"Get off of me now!", she screamed while struggling underneath his strength, her arms were throbbing with his weight on top of them. His hands quickly moved from her arms onto her throat.

"Shut the fuck up. Or I'll kill you.", he threatened, as Daria felt herself shake beneath him. Her mind was blurry and she reached out and tried to slap him, but realized what that had turned into before. She laid still, but squirmed underneath him.

"NO!", she screamed as she looked up at a terrified Trent, whom had a glass of coffee in his hands and had shook her awake.

"I, uh.. Coffee?", he mumbled out.

"I'm sorry, I just had the worst nightmare about David. It seemed so real.", she said as she extended her arm to grab the Coffee from Trent. She sipped it slowly, before looking back up at him. " Do you think I'm a slut for doing what I did? I mean, if I hadn't been drunk it would have never happened...", she said as she glanced back down to the steaming cup in her palm.

"It's not your fault that that dude is a rotten piece of crap. Don't blame yourself for something that he decided he would do. As much as everyone hopes, you can't always control people the way you'd like to.", he said as he looked over to the wall clock. "Daria, I have to head out for a while. Janey should be home soon. Are you going to be okay here, alone?", he asked cautiously.

Daria's body began to shake with that thought. Being alone is what she had never wanted to do. Trent saw Daria's color change right before his eyes. He gave her a brief smile and headed off to the telephone. Daria sat herself on the Lane couch, she rested her head on the arm rest and stared blankly at the black screen on the television. Trent was back as quick as he had left.

"Don't have to leave anymore. I called into work and told them one of my family members had an emergency.", he spoke as he sat next to Daria, her auburn locks fell lightly into her eyes, she shook them away, but they continued to do the exact same thing. Trent couldnt help but laugh.

"Sorry, it's just really cute when you do that.", Trent spoke softly. Their eyes met, and Trent leaned forward.

"Uhm..", Daria spoke quickly, "the mail's here, kind of been waiting for something.", she said as she scurried off of the couch and over to the door. Trent could have hung himself. _This girl was raped one week ago, and you want to try to date her? _he thought to himself. He wanted to hit himself in the head with anything that he could find, but he heard Daria drop the mail.

"It's here.", Daria said quietly, as she flipped the piece of mail from front to back and ran her finger on the seem of it. Trent got up and headed over towards her. His heart sank. It was the summons.

"86th District Court...", She began and flipped open the letter and read to herself. "Notice to appear... June 20th... May be called to stand...", she knew what the words meant but nothing seemed to click in her mind. Did this mean she'd have to sit in front of the entire courtroom and testify? It suddenly felt like her legs were made of jello, she shook her head in disbelief that she would have to see him again, to convince an entire court room that he had done what he had done. she sat the piece of mail on an endtable, and once again stared blankly at the television set.

Trent wasn't sure what to do with himself, he juggled the idea of wrapping his arms around her, but yet again maybe she just needed her space. She was much different and much more unique than Monique was. And other than her, he had no other relationship to base anything off of. He didn' t want to screw this up before it had even began.

They both realized the silence was unbearable, Daria grabbed for the remote and flicked the television on. She didn't care what was on, all that mattered was there was noise coming from somewhere. Her head was already into the next couple of weeks. She'd need to work on this, eventually tell her mother, and hopefully get her to be her lawyer; if she wasn't too busy for her own daughter. Daria rolled her eyes at the thought, her mom may be somewhat clueless and rather blunt to her and her sister at times, but she doubted that she'd be that completely heartless. Her eyes rolled over to Trent, whom was standing in the same spot by the door that he'd been standing at since the mail arrived. She felt a small smile trickle it's way onto her face.

"You okay?" she spoke softly, and it seemed to startle Trent out of a daze he had been in.

"Yeah just..", he wanted to words to come out right this time, no re-dos, no "let me say that differently", "I just, don't know how to react to something like this. I've never been in this situation where it feels like I'm helpless." Trent said as he sat back against the couch and let his head hang slightly over the top. Daria nustled herself into a crook between Trent's arm and his chest where she felt snug and safe.

"Don't react just.." Daria was at a loss for words herself, which happened very rarely for the brilliant girl. "Just do what you think is the right thing to do.", she finished as she moved her head up a slight bit and looked at his eyes. She noticed his small goatee he had had since she could remember, a small scar on the right side of his nose which she had never noticed at all before, and also what looked like a rejected eyebrow ring scar poking through his dark eyebrows. She had never had this feeling of such intense beauty. Intense passion, and intense longing as she had at that moment.

He noticed the girl grooming his facial features with her eyes, he suddenly felt self-concious about his ill-suited eyebrow ring attempt, he shook the thought and thought of what Daria said, he did exactly what he thought was right. He brought her up to his face and kissed her without a sign of stopping.


End file.
